Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Bucharest, SANA- Syria signed the “Bucharest Declaration” on Building a Better Digital Future for All, during its participation in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU PP-22), Ministerial Roundtable meeting held in the Romanian city of Bucharest.
Heading the Syrian delegation, Minister of Communications and Technology Iyad al-Khatib signed the Declaration on the Syrian side.
The “Bucharest Declaration” included a number of recommendations on the future of communications and technology for the next four years.
The Declaration talked about how to shape a human-centric digital society. It also stressed that digitalization has an important role for the betterment of all layers of society.
The Declaration called to affirm commitment to ensure an open, reliable, and secure Internet for all; to enable and foster universal access to affordable, high-quality and secure telecommunications, ICTs for all (Universal Connectivity); to foster equitable and inclusive use of telecommunications, ICTs to empower people and societies for sustainable development (Sustainable Digital Transformation); to collaborate closely with related global and regional organizations to catalyze efforts towards an inclusive, connected, sustainable and secure digital economy and society; and to raise ambition for our contribution in addressing the climate crisis.
The participants in the Declaration reaffirm unwavering commitment to achieve universal, secure, inclusive and affordable access to the Internet for all.
They stress that they will strengthen their efforts in the design and advance implementation of future oriented policies to leverage the power of connectivity and facilitate new and emerging telecommunications/ ICTs for sustainable development.
The participants will develop and adopt strategies and policies to increase the uptake of digital technology and to define coherent actions that address ongoing and future challenges.
They will prioritize policies that build sustainable, innovation-driven digital ecosystems to empower all people and to ensure that no one is left behind, fostering inclusiveness and equality.
The participants will also join forces to promote meaningful youth engagement, as well as gender, inclusiveness and accessibility in the decision-making processes concerning the development of the ICT sector, thus increasing innovation and job opportunities and shed light on the need to promote more diversified sources of financing for capacity development, digital skills and competencies, to improve overall readiness of all citizens to engage in and benefit from the digital economy.
They will remain fully committed to promote digital literacy for all and stress the need to increase educational investment. In support of a digital-first future, they stress to invest in digital literacy, digital public services and local content.
They affirm the urgency of strong political commitment and concrete steps to address climate change and to support research and deployment of emerging and innovative digital technologies to help mitigate their effects on the societies while building a sustainable future.
They also show commitment to apply these principles at national, regional and global levels and use them as guidance for further collective actions, transforming them into tangible results.
Ministers and high representatives of Member States of the International Telecommunication Union, representing 50 countries from all regions worldwide, met on 25 September 2022, in Bucharest, Romania, at the Ministerial Roundtable meeting of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2022.
Hala Zain
